Ceci, mon amis, is my take on a French-style omelet. Except only one egg so it is thinner than usual. But it a jumbo egg so not so pathetic as one automatically thinks, and besides in France one egg is un oeuf. It is custard and creamy inside and the outside is soft

This browned around the edges but that is all, where the egg is thinnest, basically a film, the pan tilted for the egg to form a thin edge with the bulk of the fluffed curd in the center. That provides a plump shape, then tapped loose, and tested for looseness from the pan, rolled to one side into an oval shape and out of the pan onto a plate.

The seeds are brought up to temperature slowly and evenly in oil and butter, just enough to coat the seeds.

The pot is not covered tightly, moisture must escape to allow the popcorn to become crunchy so a screen top is used instead of the pots own heavy lid.

Additional butter is melted in the hot emptied pot after the popped corn is dumped into a bowl. The seasonings have just that long, only a few seconds to heat in the hot oil before drizzled over the cooked popcorn. Sprinkled with grated hard cheese while the popped kernels are still hot.

Salt smashed to powder, Madras curry, cayenne, garlic, butter, Parmigiano Reggiano ready to go after the kernels are fully popped. The cheese is reserved for the moment.

Grated hard cheese sprinkled over the bowl of popcorn after the seasoned butter is drizzled providing small oil patches for the grated cheese to stick.

It feels exactly like I invented this tonight but whenever I check it is already invented. This has fresh jalapeño and tinned chipotle in adobe and powdered cayenne and black pepper, so a lot of all that. The spices are Mexican type, cumin, coriander seed, oregano and fresh cilantro. Onion and garlic. Eggs. Worcestershire. Mostly pork and secondarily beef. Dry breadcrumbs to hold in as much fat as possible without going too far with adjustment.

The glistening sauce is sweet red vermouth doused to clear off the pan. It reduces rapidly to syrup.

The meatloaf is baking right now and I'm starving right now as usual and this batch is large and should probably be tested so there you go.

With maple syrup, the real stuff that comes out of trees. It is the most amazing thing and the native person on the North American continent who discovered it a long time ago was demented. Had to be. Because who would think of tapping a tree?

Maple sugaring enterprises begin to operate near the beginning of the spring thaw and halted when the tree begins budding as off flavors are introduced into the tree's sap.

A hole is drilled directly into the tree trunk past the bark and a draining tap inserted with a small bucket to catch the sap as it drips from the tree. Essentially, the tree is bled of its life force just as the tree is preparing to grow new seasonal foliage.

A box of Jiffy cornbread mix will contain 50% corn flour/50% all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, salt. The instructions will say to add an egg, milk and oil. The result will be Northern-style cake-like cornbread.

Southern style is more dense, less sweet, and usually cooked in a preheated cast-iron pan to impart a crunchy crust. Southern cooks swear by cast-iron cooked cornbread.

This is Northern style, extemporaneous, cooked the Southern way.

I passed the chance to put jalapeño and cheese into the cornbread. This cornbread is plain and sweet.